I have mentioned several times the importance of resting for self-care and living to our full potential. CEOs, caretakers, pastors and workaholics are dead set in their work ethic. They want to be productive and successful. It is wonderful to be living with such high goals and expectations. Although, this always-on-the-go lifestyle has it’s downfalls too. We were not created to work this way. The Bible offers a lot of examples and principles for a healthy lifestyle.

The truth is that the Bible offers a picture of balance. Rest is important is a principle depicted by even God the Father, who rested on the seventh day after creating the universe. Jesus followed suit on many occasions He “went away” from everyone to be alone with God the Father to fast, rest and pray. While I could continue on in the theological evidence, I want to also mention that more and more studies are providing the same information that I am arguing from a Biblical perspective. On Wednesday, I posted my weekly links post. This theme for these links is napping. Napping helps people to be well-rested and in turn, more productive. Even Google is embracing the importance of well-rested employees, as they provide rest pods for their workers.

Through the Bible there is a theme centering around boundaries and balance. We can be the most productive and the most pleasant when we have proper boundaries in our lives. Work is definitely a high priority and an important one. At times, it can be difficult to put down the phone and spend time with kids. Important meetings and business deals need to get down, yes. But there are other priorities that need to be balanced as well. How are you doing socially? emotionally? physically? sexually? close relationships?

Your job will not satisfy all of your needs.

This why we need rest and we need balance.I challenge you to rest this week. Even if it is only marked out for one hour every day this week or blocked out for a Friday or Saturday evening. During this time, enjoy God and enjoy other people. Do not entertain thoughts about your job. Also take care of yourself. Exercise or enjoy a hobby. Get ready for the next storm. Life does not stop, but as a human you should stop and rest.

I made the mistake of assuming what some one’s character is liked based on thier personality. On my behalf I did not really know him (character or personality) at all, but first impressions lead me astray. It was wrong for me to assume anything about his character based on the first encounter (point of contact.) First impressions swayed me wrong, but the same was probably true of my first impressions upon him.

I was having a bad day at work and then I went to his area on the dock and he was hastling me and giving me a hard time and made one paticular comment that really hurt me so I assumed that this guy was a very negative man.

Turns out he is a nice man and even a Christian. I ran into him agian recently. He remembered our entour a few weeks ago and started giving me a hard time agian. I told him about that week and that I was having a bad day and I admitted that I made a few mistakes a few weeks back then he asked me if I was a college student…

The conversation turned quickly once he found out I was taking online classes with a Christian University. He told me he was a Christian too. We made both made new impressions upon each other.

He did admit that he enjoys giving people a hard time, especailly if they make a mistake. And I had errored that first time I met him. Still I was wrong for mistaking his rough personality with his character. These two are not the same.

This man mentioned above has developed a great relationship with me. We pray for each other and have fellowship at work!

So Yellow is going out of business.This is good news for me and UPS Freight, as we will pick up a LOT of new business.This is great news for me, because I will be back to a normal, regular, steady schedule. More hours and more money.

This is terrible news because of the economy. It is terrible also because our dock is already loaded and busy, there is no way we can support all of YELLOW’s business. There simply is not enough room on the dock!Another challenge will be the fact that we will be hiring newbies, so the dock will be flooded with more workers who do not know what they are doing, etc. But this will eventually not be a big problem.